Irvin: 'I Never Expected Anything Like This'

November 29, 1987|By George White of The Sentinel Staff

MIAMI — On the sideline, Michael Irvin stood and watched awestruck at what he was seeing. Right in front of him, his orange-shirted teammates were doing it all afternoon, the one thing he had thought impossible.

''I honestly did not think any team in America could stop Notre Dame's offense on every series, in every quarter, the entire game,'' Irvin said.

''We are talking about a great offense here Notre Dame. I've always felt we had a great defense, too, but never in my wildest dreams expected anything like this. The longer the game went, the more ridiculous it got. They never could do anything with our defense.''

Ridiculous, indeed. Notre Dame entered the game with one of the great rushing offfenses in the nation, rolling up an average of 330.5 yards per game. Saturday, it was limited to 82.

The Irish, overall, were averaging 440.7 yards total offense. Miami held them to 169.

Notre Dame has perhaps the most explosive offensive player in amateur football, Tim Brown averaging 175.2 all-purpose yards per game. The Hurricanes held him to 95.

''They changed their defenses, they blend different things around and that presented us some problems,'' said Irish Coach Lou Holtz in an enormous understatement.

''They're awfully strong up inside, they're just a good, solid football team. Their defense does a very good job.

''They are the quickest team I have ever seen.''

That, said Miami middle linebacker George Mira, was the difference.

''Their offensive line outweighed us by a ton,'' Mira said. ''But we had a big edge in quickness. They couldn't keep their bodies on us.

''They would get to us, but we were quick enough to slide off and plug up the holes. To me, that was the big difference today. Time after time, we were quicker than them in getting to the focal point of the attack.''

The Hurricanes were especially quick in thwarting Notre Dame's option play. Quarterback Tony Rice repeatedly came down the line of scrimmage with himself and every potential pitchman blanketed.

''The key to stopping the option is to force them to run east and west along the line,'' Mira said. ''You've got to get penetration from your tackles, get them across the line in the pitchman's way. And someone has to be there to handle the quarterback.''

Defensive ends Daniel Stubbs and Bill Hawkins stepped up to turn the play back inside. And Mira was all alone time after time to nail quarterback Rice before he could get going across the line.

The dominating work of Miami's defensive line, tying up Notre Dame's blockers all day, allowed Mira to roam for 17 tackles, tying his career high. And then there was the mercurial Brown, who never could cause his accustomed havoc in the Miami secondary.